Nobel Laureates in the cellar
Nothing works without microscopy: Atoms, molecules and other central building blocks of life remain hidden from the human eye. But of course science wants to take a closer look as possible what happens at the level of the smallest particles. Without microscopes, many discoveries and milestones in research would not have been possible. For example, our understanding of the processes in living cells would be different. Science - especially biology, chemistry and medicine - would be unimaginable without the art of enlargement.
Already in the year 1590 a spectacle maker had presented the first copy. Since then, telescopes have been ensuring that we can observe even the smallest processes. For this, the technology had to be revolutionized again and again. Today, so-called fluorescence microscopy ensures that even the smallest proteins and particles become visible at the nano level.
Countless scientists work with the ever better microscopes. But who is actually researching the improvement of the microscopes themselves? This work happens, among other things, in a Heidelberg basement. There, Nobel Prize winners Stefan Hell and his team try to move the border of the visible.
By combining and further developing various methods, it is now possible to watch proteins at work live.
Future of microscopy
Verena Tang from Wissenschaft visited Hell and his employees and reports in the podcast about a basement room with darkened windows and reddish-shimmering light. This is where the future of microscopy comes into being, explains Tang.
In an interview with detector.fm moderator Marc Zimmer, Tang reveals what Hell's Nobel Prize for Mikroscopy has to do with a donut and what the researchers are currently working on in Heidelberg.
